As you may know it looks like Caitlyn Jenner's run for California's recall election is actually serious. I first covered Jenner's announcement that she was running here. Since that post Jenner has been on a press tour where she had an interview with Sean Hannity.
That's kind of a big deal as Hannity is one of the larger conservative outlets out there and to have her on is an endorsement of a sort. It shows that she's a serious candidate and there doesn't appear to be too many of those in California going up against Gavin Newsom. No, the guy running around with a bear doesn't count.
I didn't watch the Hannity video but from what I understand Jenner did a fairly decent job. Reading reactions even people who dislike or are disgusted by Jenner said that she hit the right notes and was someone they might vote for. I personally generally like her policies as far as I have heard and I was also aware that she was conservative even back when she was still Bruce.
But can Republicans get over the fact that she is Transgender? Should they? That's the big question I have been wondering about lately. There is a strong argument for doing so. Obviously the biggest is Gavin Newsom himself. He has been terrible as a governor and has done massive damage to the State of California. It's hard to imagine anyone worse.
Supporting Jenner also does damage to the narrative that Republicans are bigots. Jenner is transgender and electing her to the governors office would make the argument that Republicans hate all LGBT people. Maybe not to Democrats, they are already saying that Jenner is not a "real" trans person, but for people in the center it might be a convincing argument.
And it seems as though Jenner supports a lot of things that many Republicans support. She's not in favor of trans athletes competing in high school sports, she's in favor of the border wall and she's anti-lockdown. These are all big things for Republicans and things they will not get Gavin Newsom.
I also have to say that the GOP does have an opening with the LGBT community. At best the Democrats have been treating the LGBT community as a captive audience and there is no agreement in the community about continuing to support the Democrats. As hard as it may be to believe there has been a major pushback from the LGB community against woke politics and Jenner could be the pathway to peel off some of the T community.
But there is an argument that we should not be supporting Jenner. When Jenner came out as transgender it did a lot to normalize transgenderism to the general public. The left will argue that this was a good thing but I think it may have done a lot of damage. I'm not for discrimination against anyone but there is a lot of damage that can be done by convincing people they are the wrong gender.
There are a lot of parts of the transgender community that I am deeply uncomfortable with. For one thing "bottom surgery" seems like one of those things that will be looked at with horror in the future, much like lobotomies are today. I'm also deeply concerned about puberty blockers. From what I understand the pills do massive damage to children and can even kill them.
But the worst part of the transgender community is their behavior. There are of course a large number of them that just try to live their lives and I have no problem with them. But the bad actors are among the absolute worst people in the country right now. It's a group full of pedophiles, harassers, sexists and just generally terrible people. Just look up Jonathan/Jessica Yaniv as a good example of how horrible these people can be. I don't see Jenner supporting this but I also don't see her speaking out about it. If she did I would be a lot more comfortable with her.
Still, I think what the Republicans in California need to ask themselves what is more important to them. Getting rid of Gavin Newsom or pushing back against trans-culture? It is a tough choice and I'm glad that I'm not in a position to face it. The best solution would be for another viable candidate to show up but that doesn't seem like it is going to happen.
Personally I probably would vote for Jenner. Newsom is terrible but getting a new governor is probably worth any other concerns. And I hope that having Jenner as a governor will actually give trans-people a better role model than the current ones. But I also do hope that a more normal viable GOP candidate comes out of the woodwork.
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